Horry County cellphone issue put on hold, but not dead

The issue of trimming Horry County's cellphone budget isn't on the agenda for the June 21 County Council meeting, but that doesn't mean it won't be discussed before final reading of the proposed 2012 fiscal year budget, council clerk Pat Hartley said Tuesday.

Hartley said via email that no one requested the topic be placed on the agenda, and the deadline for agenda submissions has passed.

"I do anticipate this will be brought up when the budget ordinance comes up for third reading," she said.

County Chief Information Officer Sheila Butler said she and the county's provider, HTC, are doing an analysis of the cellphone plan to see where cuts or changes could be made.

Butler hopes to present some of the analysis at next week's meeting, but doesn't expect to have any solid savings figures.

Areas of the analysis include whether they need a texting plan, or if the county's pool of cellphone minutes could be reduced, Butler said.

At a May County Council meeting, District 5 Councilman Paul Price requested the county look at possible ways to trim its $327,865 cellphone budget for 376 phones.

Price said Tuesday he doesn't have any new details about his request.

County spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier said after that May meeting she expects the county's cellphone budget to remain about the same. The money comes out to an average of $81 per month per phone.

Exactly 238 of the county's cellphones go to Public Safety, which has the most positions with 1,132.

Eighty-eight of the phones are BlackBerrys or iPhones, and the rest are basic phones.

Butler said the county's monthly cellphone bill is roughly $27,000. The city of Myrtle Beach spends around $9,300 a month on cell service.

"Based on operations, it's very difficult to compare," Butler said about the two bills.

The city of Myrtle Beach switched to T-Mobile at the beginning of the year, city spokesman Mark Kruea said. The county's contract with HTC expires in March 2012, at which time they'll consider other vendors, Butler said.

A challenge setting the county aside from municipalities like Myrtle Beach when it comes to cellphone providers is finding one offering rural coverage.

Butler said when she did an analysis on possible county providers, it limited the number of vendors because they didn't have that rural coverage. She added they couldn't go with a company like T-Mobile.

HTC also provided the pool of minutes the county was looking for. Butler said one employee may only use 200 minutes per month, while another uses 600 minutes. The two could then flip the following month.

The pool of minutes keeps the county from having to use individual cellphone plans, which increases if the employee goes over the designated number of minutes in that plan.

"It's really a partnership that we're working with, with HTC," Butler said.